


The Mirror

by phantomofthecity



Category: Doctor Who, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Companions, Mirror of Erised, Past Companions - Freeform, The Doctor finds the Mirror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 09:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2019138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomofthecity/pseuds/phantomofthecity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Clara's spending time with the children, the Doctor decides to have a bit of an adventure on his own in a castle from 1594, but ends up in 1994, where he finds an odd mirror in said castle...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this a year ago but didn't finish it (surprise, surprise) and I finally finished it last night. It's kind of sad.

The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, thrilled about the adventure to come.

"It seems we've landed in the wrong time... Instead of 1594 it seems we've landed in 1994." the Doctor stated nonchalantly.

"But there's still a castle standing here, that shouldn't be right, now should it, Clara?" The Doctor mused.

"Clara?" He asked, looking around in a full three-sixty for his missing companion.

"Clara?" He inquired once again, poking his head through the TARDIS door, looking around for the missing girl.

Once he saw that her petite leather jacket wasn't in its usual place near the console, he remembered: Clara was with the children. She had insisted on staying with them for the weekend, since she felt like she hadn't seen them for ages.

Disappointed that he had no one to act clever around, the Doctor strolled back into the deserted castle. He wondered if he should save the castle for another time when Clara was with him, and actually aim for the right time period.

That's it! The time period!

"This isn't right," the Doctor stated, his voice echoing off of the stone floors and walls. "This is 1994, there shouldn't be a perfectly preserved castle in the middle of nowhere. If anything, this should be a museum, but what's wrong with it, Clara?" He asked to his absent companion once more.

Realizing he is alone again, he deflated a bit and pretended his companion had answered  question.

"Exactly. There are no signs telling what anything is or was, no artifacts lined up against the wall, no nothing in this place to make is a museum, which could only mean one thing and I don't know what that thing is."

Strolling out of the room with renewed vigor, the Doctor made an immediate right down the long, marble corridor.

Dozens of towering windows lined the wall on the left of the Doctor. Looking out the nearest window, he saw one of the strangest sights: a perfectly kept garden area.

The garden was lush and luxurious, with a fountain in the center and pathways leading to it from all four enclosing sides.

Stopping to take a look, the Doctor took in its beauty. With one final glance, he looked away, and searched for a door to seek the answers to his many questions.

Finding a door on his right, he promptly threw it open and stepped inside.

But the room wasn't exactly what he was looking for. It was small and square, and, like the corridor from before, made entirely of stone and marble. The room was empty, except for one thing: a mirror. It was strange, this mirror. It was a full body mirror, few inches taller than him.

Stepping forward to inspect this odd mirror, the Doctor noticed strange writing at the top of the frame:

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

Either it is a language already, or it was just gibberish, since the TARDIS didn't translate it for him. That was his first clue that something was off with the object.

Quickly, the Timelord took out his sonic screwdriver and scanned the object before him for signs of what it could be. With a long glance at the sonic, the Doctor became confused. It was just a normal mirror, but something was still off about it.

The Doctor did a full 360 around the strange object, observing every crack and corner of the gold mirror. Finally, he came to the front of the mirror and looked into his reflection, and started to straighten his bowtie. That’s when he noticed them.

There were people all around his reflection, but when he looked around the room, there was no one there.

Looking closer at the faces that surrounded his reflection, the old traveler recognized them one by one.

 

Susan Foreman.

Barbara Wright.

Ian Chesterton.

Vicki.

Steven Taylor.

Katrina.

Sara Kingdom.

Dodo Chaplet.

Polly.

Ben Jackson.

Jamie McCrimmon.

Victoria Waterfield.

Zoe Heriot.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

Liz Shaw.

Jo Grant.

Sarah Jane Smith.

Sergeant John Benton.

Captain Mike Yates.

Harry Sullivan.

Leela.

K-9.

Romana.

Adric.

Tegan Jovanka.

Nyssa.

Vislor Turlough.

Kamelion.

Peri Brown.

Melanie Bush.

Ace.

Grace Holloway.

Rose Tyler.

Jack Harkness.

Micky Smith.

Donna Noble.

Jack Harkness.

Astrid Peth.

Wilfred Mott.

Amy Pond.

Rory Williams.

River Song.

Craig Owens.

And lastly, Clara.

His Clara.

 

All together were his companions, past and present.

His companions.

His  _family_.

The Doctor barely noticed the tears that were sliding down his face at this point, he was too fixated on taking in as much of the faces of the past as possible. He also didn’t notice the man who seemed to appear out of thin air.

“You, like many others before you, have found the Mirror of Erised,” the old man said, startling the Doctor.

Wiping his face, the Timelord managed to speak, “What -- What is this?”

The Doctor took a look at the man before him. He was wearing dark purple robes, and his long white beard and hair and wrinkled face made him look as old as the Doctor felt.

“This, my dear friend, is the Mirror of Erised. Do you know what it does?”

“It -- It showed me, and my friends,” the Doctor said, a lump forming in throat.

“It did not just show you your friends, did it? It showed much more than that. Much, much more.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The inscription, on the top of the mirror, can you see it?”

“Can I see it? What’d you mean ‘can I see it?’ Of course I can see it.”

“Then you can see what it says?”

“It’s gibberish. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“Ah. But look again.”

Looking at the mirror again, the Doctor focused solely on the inscription at the top.

 

_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

 

He looked at it closer.

 

Erised. Erised. _Erised_.

Then it came to him: _Desire_.

 

Once he realized that the word desire, the Doctor looked at the rest of the inscription and began to slowly decipher it.

 

_I show not your face but your hearts desire._

“Your heart’s desire,” the Doctor said in awe.

“You see, men have come here before, not knowing the power of the mirror, and have crumbled away trying to figure out its true meaning.”

The Doctor didn’t reply to the man.

“You,” he started again, “See yourself with the company of others. You have fought loneliness your entire life, so naturally you see yourself in the company of the ones you have loved and lost.”

“Is there a way to get them all back?” He asked sadly.

“You know better than anyone that it cannot be done. Time is a delicate thing.”

“It was worth the try,” the Doctor replied with a sad smile.

“And even if you did, most would not recognize you, would they not?”

The Timelord did not respond for a minute.

“What should I do?” He finally asked.

“I suggest you leave. Move on with your life. Do not forget. No, you never forget what has happened. You remember, and you learn from it.”

Finally turning away from the mirror, the Doctor faced the man full on for the first time, tear tracks still fresh.

“Thank you.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, ignore the suckish ending.


End file.
